Three senior officials of the Department of Justice resigned after the dismissal of corruption charges against the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams were ordered.
The main federal prosecutor in Manhattan resigned on Thursday after receiving an order from the Department of Justice to withdraw corruption charges against the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams.
The resignation of Danielle Sassoon, a Republican who was the Federal Interim Prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, was confirmed by a prosecutor's spokesman.
His resignation occurred days after a high -ranking official of the Department of Justice ordered New York prosecutors to dismiss the case against Adams, who was accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions and free travel bribes with a discount of people who They wanted to buy their influence.
The Undersecretary of Interim Justice, Emil Bove, said in a memorandum on Monday that the case should be dismissed so that Adams, a Democrat, could help with the campaign against the irregular immigration of President Donald Trump and campaign for his re -election.
Adams declared himself innocent and has argued that the positions were presented as retaliation for their criticisms of Biden immigration policies.
The decision of the Justice Department to close the case due to political considerations, instead of the strength or weakness of the evidence, alarmed some career prosecutors who considered that it represents a departure from the established norms.
While Bove had ordered that the case be dismissed as soon as “practicable”, days passed without statements or public actions by the Prosecutor's Office in New York.
The United States Secretary of Justice, Pam Bondi, said Wednesday that he would “investigate” why the charges had not yet been dismissed.
Sassoon, former secretary of the late judge of the United States Supreme Court Antonin Scalia, who is a member of the conservative federalist society, was not the one who presented the case against Adams last year. Who did, former Federal Fiscal Damian Williams, resigned after Trump's electoral victory.
Sassoon had only been appointed to serve as an interim prosecutor of the United States on January 21, the day after Trump assumed the position.
His role was destined to be temporary. Trump nominated Jay Clayton, the former president of the United States Securities and Stock Exchange, for the position, a designation that must be confirmed by the Senate.
The prosecution that she directed, the Southern New York district, is among the largest and most prominent prosecutors in the United States, with a long history of addressing misconduct in Wall Street, political corruption and international terrorism.
He has a tradition of independence from Washington, something that has earned him the nickname of “The Sovereign District.”
John Keller, the interim boss of the Public Corruption Unit of the Department of Justice, and Kevin Driscoll, a senior official of the Department's criminal division, also resigned, said people familiar with the matter.
(With information from Reuters and The Associated Press)